Police, military, and other intelligence organizations have long relied on data harvested from computers seized in security operations to gain information about criminal or terrorist activity and other security threats. Personal computer hard drives and other storage media frequently contain a wealth of files and other useful information. With the scope and intensity of security activities being dramatically increased worldwide, United States and other governmental security operations, overseas and domestic, are collecting far more hard drives and other media than can possibly be processed and analyzed using conventional methods, techniques and technology.
Accordingly, a need exists for, and it would be desirable to provide, methods, systems, devices and software that would expedite the management, analysis and harvesting of hard drives and other digital storage media obtained by security operations and other activities.